Melt looks like butter. Spreads like butter. And in most ways, tastes like butter. But of course — it’s not butter.

In fact, the only reason Melt exists is because the company’s founder, Cygnia Rapp, couldn’t eat butter (or many other common fat sources) without becoming ill.

“She was 30 years old at the time and decided she didn’t want to live that way,” explains Meg Carlson, an experienced food industry veteran and the company’s president and CEO. Cygnia’s solution? Develop a not-so-easy-to-follow recipe for an alternative to butter.Read more

Janine Zacca Zenner knew her mother was passionate about hummus, but she didn’t expect this. Her mom, who was visiting Boise from South Florida, stood in Janine’s kitchen yelling in her family’s native language of Arabic.

“She was really upset. ‘Why aren’t you using the garbanzo beans from the farm?!’” Janine recalls.Read more